Topic : 11/27 The Dr. Phil House: Heroin Twins, The Intervention, Part 2

 Cindy, This is your old friend from Pass Christian, Betsy. I have often thought of you and the girls. I know how much you love the girls and can understand the grief and saddness of dealing with this disease. Sarah and Tacoa I want you to know that we are all thinking of you and I hope things are going better for you all. I can't believe that ya'll are 25 now. Boy I'm getting old!
Sarah and Tacoa you would not regonize the street anymore. Hurricane Katrina left its mark on Holiday Dr. but I am happy to say that  the house you grew up in made it fine. Shannon and Loren send thier best.  This is my e-mail betsyfarris@cableone.net I would love to here from you Cindy. Guy has hep c also, unfortunatly he did not know untill damage was done.   It is good that Sarah knows she has this virus now while she can still do something about it.  Anyway one step at a time, getting past this addiction is the only thing you need to worry about now. I really want you to know that we are praying  and hoping for the best.  Betsy  

At 10, I babysat for a lady with a Heroin addiction.  Growing up, my parent's were drug dealers which explains why everyone thought it was normal to let a 10 year old watch an infant and a 2 year old with a heart condition.  Anyway, I could not figure out why this ladies legs were so huge, and she walked funny.  So, I asked her and she showed me.  She had holes in her legs into the meat a few inches deep, from her knee's down, BOTH LEGS!  The holes were so big that you could put your fist in each one easily.  She squirted betadine solution in the holes, and packed them with gauze and more solution, then wrapped them up with ace bandages Mummy Style! Needless to say, while I stole her joints out of the ashtray and used drugs and alcohol off and on for years, I never touched Heroin, would not even consider it. I think everyone should have to see her legs, and it would be enough to go NO WAY!  At least now I am 17 years off of hard drugs (coke, meth, crank, acid, shrooms), 2 years off of alcohol (i wasn't much of a drinker anyway, but if I had just 2 drinks i'd then need 10 more) , and 1 year off of cigarettes and pot.  I just woke up one day, and thought " My children don't know what it's like to have a mom who's not stoned.  They didn't even know I smoked pot, but the only mom they knew had squinty red eyes, and was super mellow all the time.  If my life is so bad I have to stuff it all down with drugs, why live it at all?  That's my incentive to stay clean, every day. Because how can I complain about my own parents, and turn around and be a stoner?  As hard as it was to quit, I know if I ever touch anything again, I'll never stop.  I am now the only person in my family who is sober, and this includes my siblings (one crack head, one coke head) and parents(one alcoholic, one everything aholic).  They think I look down on them, so they don't have anything to do with me. And you know what?  I do look down on them.  If I can do it, so can they.  And so can you!!!! 

I have to send a second message begging you to see a doctor in your area that will prescribe suboxone.  I was on over 100mg. of methadone a day, and I was able to switch over to suboxone.  You really need medical supervision when switching over.  If you switch on an outpatient basis, remember to NOT leave the doctor's office until at least 6 hours.  I left too early thinking I'd be fine, I had never come off of methadone before, only prescription pain pills.  Big mistake.  For the first time in my life since using drugs, since I've been on suboxone, I feel like a normal person.  Methadone made me feel yukky.  I never got any high from it, I just didn't like the way I felt on it.  In New Orleans, the clinics push you too increase your dosage.  They meth system down here is just as bad as a drug pushers.  Since on suboxone, I sometimes forget to take my medicine.  In a couple of days, I will start feeling a little "dragging," and then I'll remember.  It's such a great freedom to have a drug that eliminates cravings, and I don't have any desire to try and up the dose like I would have in the past.  For me, it also makes alcohol very undesirable (maybe the naloxone, not sure).  That's just an added bonus!

 

Good luck to you.  Please go to suboxone.com and find a doctor in your area.  A good website to visit is naabt.org which is National Association for the Advancement of Buprenorphine Treatment. 

 

The only thing that scares me is when I see arrests in the paper that have to do with suboxone/subutex.  I guess people who are on herion get Subuxone illegally to use when they can't get any herion.  I hope that doesn't screw it up for the rest of us recovering addicts who use it legally.  That would be a crying shame.  Good luck!  Sorry for the long post, but I know how it feels to feel crappy all the time and fight to not use because you hate it so much.

That doctor should be ashamed of putting you on methadone for fibromyalgia.  Methadone is not that good for pain management; certainly not worth the risk of addiction and the hell of getting off of it.  Please go to suboxone.com and search your state for a doctor that prescribes suboxone.  You can get off the methodone.  First you should get subutex, if at all possible - subutex doesn't have the naloxone (sp?) in it that would put you into withdrawals.  Then you would transfoer onto suboxone.  ANYONE will become dependent on opiates if taken long enough.  If you feel dependent and not like you are an addict craving the "high," then the doctor should help you taper off the suboxone, which will be much easier than methadone.  Suboxone has been prescribed for pain, so maybe it will help with the fibromyalgia.  I am on Subuxone for maintenance, and it's the best thing that ever happened to me. 

 

Some primary care physicians are now prescribing suboxone.  You can certainly ask your physician to take the online course (6 hours?) to be certified to prescribe it.  Many phyisicans will not work with addicts.  It's mainly their ignorance due to lack of knowledge about addiction as a disease.  I searched long and hard for someone in my insurance plan that would prescribe suboxone.  I now have the price down to less than $40 per month! 

 

GeminiBlond - Good luck and God Bless!  You have certainly been through alot.

 

I loved reading your post--I too am a mother who is a recovering alcoholic, and know what is like to feel like a hypocrite when it comes to my children.  All we can do is be all we can be....which always should be the best or even better than that for our children!  Keep up the good work--:)

I too am an ex-drug abuser.  I refuse to use a lable as an excuse or go to meeting to re-hash all the garbage of my past.  With that said, I thank goodness I never got into anything stronger than Crack, so I don't know what detoxining from herioine is like, however I do know what crashing, Jonesing and having a bunch of people in your face telling you what's going to be best for you is all about.  I used the drug originally for fun, to have the "good time high", and then the addiction took over and I used it to cope, stay awake and to paint my own form of reality.  Little did I know how close to death I was, after having my world as I knew it pulled out from under my feet away, and the intervention I was still in denial and craving it so bad.  It took me a full year to get through all the hoops and an almost 2nd death for me to wake up and smell the devil on my door step.

I too had a mother in the middle of this mess with no concept of what to do with me, it's not her fault, people with such innocence of alchohol and drugs do not I stress do not understand the hold it has on someone addicted.  I too think the mother is a "tool" and not helping the situation, but that's why the proffessionals are there, she just needs to leave the past in the past and move on.  If someone would have shown me pictures of what I was going to look like in the future with and without being on drugs, I'm pretty sure my year of turmoil would have been much shorter.  Let them detox and get the cravingings and Jonesing out of their systems before expecting them to fall down on their knees and proffesing their desire of being clean.  It just ain't going to happen, all us ex-addicts know she's months away from being truly clean without any slips.  It's the pregnant twin I worry about...I too was clean during pregnancy and then 2 weeks after I gave birth to twins, caved under the pressure, fatigue and loneliness and reached out to my former best friend CRACK COCAINE.  Dr. Phil really needs to watch her for the next 2 years, she is much better and creating her own truths and twisting and turning her stories.  That was my specialty.

 

I think the fact that Tacoa is in the house at all shows her commitment to being clean.  Although she may not speak about it openly, I imagine it's very difficult to fight her cravings.  Many people in her situation would just go on methadone because doctors allow you to do so while pregnant.  I applaud her for taking the big step of being in the house at all.  I think she must quit smoking for the baby's sake.  And I'm not sure she's capable or ready to raise a child at this point in her life, but I've never walked in her shoes, and we really don't know her level of commitment.  Some people don't feel confident enough in themselves to verbalize how they feel or what they need.

 

Also, it sounds like Tacoa went through detox cold turkey, while Sarah is being given some type of medication to help with the withdrawal (even though she should be given Subutex, then Suboxone).

 

Just my 2 cents.

This show has me so concerned...I left my husband 6 weeks ago due to a drug problem that has gotten worse over our 13 years of marriage. We have 3 beautiful boys, I'm worried about their future also. I didn't even know it at the time I left, but I found out recently that my husbands cocaine use had escalated to smoking crack. After seeing this show and how this poor girl was living, it just upset me. I though leaving would force my husband into rehab - I was so wrong, he has gone the other way. He doesn't even respond to calls from his own children. I am starting to realize how all consuming these drugs are. I don't know if this show will help anyone stop or think before starting, once they are into it, they are on a runaway train. I pray these girls and others will find the help and peace and dignity they deserve. God bless Dr. Phil for trying to help someone who has given up on themselves. These girls can make it, the human spirit has so much determination to survive. Good luck and God Bless you both, Sarah and Tacoma.

I don't know what heroin is all about, but I do know about cocaine.  Did you see those pictures  of what they will look like using?  I wish someone would have done that for me to make my recovery easier.  We all have our reasons for wanting the drug, mine was to escape the world and then to be skinny.  Well I escaped the world by moving to the country,  it helped with my triggers the best, and well, let's just say I'm not skinny anymore.  Everyone needs something to hold onto, to get them through or a reason, I kept having near death experiences with my children, I finally woke up and said I am not supposed to die yet, I have to clean up and live out my role in life.  That's what I do everyday, live.  Yes I still think about drugs, I dream about them I still love them, but, I need to live my life clean and clear minded;  end of (addiction) story.  Mind over matter, a clear mind can actually prevail

jandherboy's

A bottle of subutex and suboxone was shown to the patient, but they refused to give her any and allowed her to go through the hell of detox. I'm sure this girl already knows how it feels to be in extreme withdrawal, so I don't see the point in allowing her to suffer when buprenorphine was readily available.  If addiction is defined as a DISEASE, why not treat it with medical options that are available?  Even is she is on Suboxone, she REALLY has to want to get clean, or she will quit using it so she can get high.  At least if she has the naloxone in her system, she can't get "high" even is she wants to. 

 

If Dr. Phil had a set of twins in the house that had diabetes and didn't take care of themselves to the point of their health suffering, would he refuse to give them insulin so they could remember the pain that lead them to this point? 

 

I don't get it - either addiction IS A DISEASE and should be treated with ALL medical options available, or it is NOT A DISEASE and should not be treated as such.  You can't have it both ways just for good television footage.